University of North Carolina Athletics
Diamond Heels Ranked Among MLB Draft Top Prospects
July 12, 2024 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – UNC junior outfielder Vance Honeycutt looks to become the 25th overall Major League Baseball Draft first round selection in school history on Sunday.
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UNC has produced 16 first-round selections from the primary June Draft, tied for fifth-most among all NCAA institutions (NCAA.com). Carolina has had nine players taken in the first round of secondary drafts and compensatory and supplemental picks.
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The first two rounds of the 2024 MLB First-Year Player Draft will be on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET in Fort Worth, Texas, and will be televised on ESPN and MLB Network. Sunday's rounds will also be streamed on ESPN+ and MLB.com.
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The draft continues on Monday with rounds 3-10 and concludes on Tuesday with rounds 11-20. There will be no live television coverage on the second and third days, but MLB.com will stream live coverage online.
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The last Tar Heel to be taken in the first round was Aaron Sabato, who was selected 27th overall by the Minnesota Twins in 2020.
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Baseball America ranks Honeycutt as the No. 13 overall draft prospect. Other Tar Heels among the Baseball America Top MLB Draft Prospects are outfielder Casey Cook (No. 164), left-handed pitcher Dalton Pence (No. 340) and outfielder Anthony Donofrio (No. 449).
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MLB.com (No. 22), CBSSports.com (No. 23), Perfect Game (No. 24) and ESPN.com (No. 25) rank Honeycutt among the top 25 draft prospects.
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Honeycutt was named First Team All-America in 2024 by four organizations and was named to the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Team. He tied for the ACC lead in home runs with a program record 28, while also leading the league in runs (88). Honeycutt finished the season with a career-best .318 batting average with 70 RBIs while posting the third-highest single-season slugging percentage (.714) in program history.
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He is the only player among the Power 5 conferences to hit over 60 home runs (65) and steal more than 70 bases (76) in his career. He hit the fourth-most home runs in ACC history and became the first to win the league's Defensive Player of the Year Award twice.
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Honeycutt became the first baseball student-athlete at UNC to be named First Team All-America and First Team Academic All-America this season.
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Cook was a First Team All-ACC selection and hit .343 with 18 home runs and a team-high 78 RBIs a year after hitting just three home runs and driving home 23 in only four fewer games. He finished the year with the third-most RBIs in the ACC and 11th-most nationally.
Pence posted a 5-1 record with eight saves and a 2.45 ERA, averaging 11.35 strikeouts per nine innings. He was tabbed as Second Team All-America by Baseball America, College Baseball Foundation, D1 Baseball, and Perfect Game and named Third Team All-ACC.
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Donofrio batted .326 with a .435 on-base percentage, both third-highest on the team. He led the ACC in triples with six, ranked fifth in steals (19) and eighth in doubles (19). Donofrio collected 22 multi-hit games and 15 multi-RBI games.
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Since the MLB Draft began in 1965, 222 Tar Heels have been selected.
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UNC has produced 16 first-round selections from the primary June Draft, tied for fifth-most among all NCAA institutions (NCAA.com). Carolina has had nine players taken in the first round of secondary drafts and compensatory and supplemental picks.
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The first two rounds of the 2024 MLB First-Year Player Draft will be on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET in Fort Worth, Texas, and will be televised on ESPN and MLB Network. Sunday's rounds will also be streamed on ESPN+ and MLB.com.
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The draft continues on Monday with rounds 3-10 and concludes on Tuesday with rounds 11-20. There will be no live television coverage on the second and third days, but MLB.com will stream live coverage online.
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The last Tar Heel to be taken in the first round was Aaron Sabato, who was selected 27th overall by the Minnesota Twins in 2020.
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Baseball America ranks Honeycutt as the No. 13 overall draft prospect. Other Tar Heels among the Baseball America Top MLB Draft Prospects are outfielder Casey Cook (No. 164), left-handed pitcher Dalton Pence (No. 340) and outfielder Anthony Donofrio (No. 449).
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MLB.com (No. 22), CBSSports.com (No. 23), Perfect Game (No. 24) and ESPN.com (No. 25) rank Honeycutt among the top 25 draft prospects.
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Honeycutt was named First Team All-America in 2024 by four organizations and was named to the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Team. He tied for the ACC lead in home runs with a program record 28, while also leading the league in runs (88). Honeycutt finished the season with a career-best .318 batting average with 70 RBIs while posting the third-highest single-season slugging percentage (.714) in program history.
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He is the only player among the Power 5 conferences to hit over 60 home runs (65) and steal more than 70 bases (76) in his career. He hit the fourth-most home runs in ACC history and became the first to win the league's Defensive Player of the Year Award twice.
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Honeycutt became the first baseball student-athlete at UNC to be named First Team All-America and First Team Academic All-America this season.
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Cook was a First Team All-ACC selection and hit .343 with 18 home runs and a team-high 78 RBIs a year after hitting just three home runs and driving home 23 in only four fewer games. He finished the year with the third-most RBIs in the ACC and 11th-most nationally.
Pence posted a 5-1 record with eight saves and a 2.45 ERA, averaging 11.35 strikeouts per nine innings. He was tabbed as Second Team All-America by Baseball America, College Baseball Foundation, D1 Baseball, and Perfect Game and named Third Team All-ACC.
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Donofrio batted .326 with a .435 on-base percentage, both third-highest on the team. He led the ACC in triples with six, ranked fifth in steals (19) and eighth in doubles (19). Donofrio collected 22 multi-hit games and 15 multi-RBI games.
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Since the MLB Draft began in 1965, 222 Tar Heels have been selected.
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